The man accused of murdering Whanganui woman Lorna-Anne Marie Thompson has pleaded not guilty in the High Court at Whanganui.
Eric Ara Mete, 50, appeared on September 3. He has been charged with murdering Thompson, 41, on or before April 6 this year. Police discovered her body in her upstairs flat several days later.
Mete is the brother of Labour list MP Kiri Allan, who lives on the East Coast. After the death she told Wellington reporters that she is the ninth child in a family of 10, and didn't grow up with Mete.
She said her family and Lorna-Anne Marie Thompson's were intimately connected, and her brother and Thompson knew each other.
Mete's trial by jury will take place in the High Court at Whanganui on September 28, 2020.
